Of the roughly 72,000 people in this year’s database, more than 20,000 earned $100,000 or more, a 4.5-per-cent increase in six-figure salaries over the previous year.

That’s the smallest year-over-year increase since The Sun’s database first launched in 2008. Six-figure salaries increased by more than 20 per cent in each of the two years after the database launched. That slowed to 4.7 per cent in 2012 and 7.7 per cent in 2013.

It also means that six-figure salaries in the public sector are growing slower than inflation. If you took everyone who was in The Sun’s salary database last year and simply increased their salary by the rate of inflation — roughly 1.5 per cent — the number of people earning six-figure salaries would have increased by 10 per cent, more than double the actual increase.

The slowing growth in six-figure salaries is somewhat surprising as the B.C. government began once again approving modest wage increases for public-sector workers in 2012 after two years of “net zero” negotiations in which any wage increases for employees had to be paid for with cost savings elsewhere.

However, those wage increases have been offset by cuts at some of the province’s biggest public-sector employers.

For example, the number of BC Hydro employees earning $100,000 or more has dropped 4.2 per cent — from 2,667 in 2011/12 to 2,556 in 2012/13.

In an email, BC Hydro spokeswoman Simi Heer noted the utility has eliminated more than 900 managerial and office positions during the past three years and frozen management salaries, which “have caused these numbers to plateau over the last few years.”

However, Hydro believes this one-year drop is due to normal fluctuation — caused by things like retirements and staff turnover — rather than the start of a permanent downward trend.

Indeed, Heer said since many of Hydro’s six-figure employees are front-line workers, like power-line technicians, the utility wants to do what it can to retain them.

ICBC saw a similar drop in six-figure salaries, of five per cent, from 645 in 2011 to 613 in 2012.

“In late 2012, we reduced our workforce by more than 260 positions — most of which came from management ranks,” ICBC spokesman Adam Grossman wrote in an email. “In addition to this, all management compensation at ICBC has also been frozen since 2012.”

The declines at both Hydro and ICBC came after significant increases in six-figure salaries the year before. Indeed, both still have more employees earning six figures now than they did two years ago.

The central B.C. government saw an even bigger drop in six-figure salaries — nearly nine per cent — from 1,847 in 2011/12 to 1,682 in 2012/13. Unlike ICBC and BC Hydro, the B.C. government did not have a big increase the year before, so there are fewer people earning six figures now than there were two years ago (1,832).

B.C. Finance Ministry spokesman Jamie Edwardson said while the government has engaged in a number of cost-saving measures during the years, he couldn’t say specifically what led to such a sharp year-over-year drop in six-figure salaries.

“I don’t think there’s anything we can say,” said Edwardson. “I don’t have a definitive explanation to give you.”

Because some agencies in the database this year were not included last year, The Sun has limited its comparison of six-figure salaries only to those agencies that were in the database both years.

While the overall increase in six-figure salaries was relatively modest this year, some agencies saw significant jumps in those earning $100,000 or more, with seven agencies seeing year-over-year increases of 50 per cent or more.

In most cases, those big jumps were due to unusual circumstances.

For example, Kamloops, Delta and North Vancouver District all signed new collective agreements with their firefighters in 2012, resulting in large lump-sum payments covering two or three years of retroactive pay, pushing dozens of firefighters above the $100,000 mark for that year alone.

Police departments in West Vancouver, Port Moody and New Westminster also signed new contracts with their members, which resulted in officers earning retro pay in 2012.

The Justice Institute of B.C. said its increase in six-figure employees — from 17 to 24 — was due to a number of factors, including the creation of some new positions such as a manager responsible for educational technology and another for external relations.

Vancouver Community College went from 12 employees earning six figures in 2011/12 to 18 in 2012/13, a 50-per-cent increase. But that just returned the college to the same number of six-figure earners it had in 2010/11. The one-year drop was due to a restructuring that temporarily left several senior positions vacant.

And the City of Vancouver said its 37-per-cent jump in six-figure salaries — from 453 in 2011 to 620 in 2012 — was due largely to a new policy that resulted in many non-union staff taking large, one-time payouts of their banked vacation and sick time.

In some cases, the increases in six-figure salaries aren’t as dramatic as they might first appear.

For example, Nicola Valley Institute of Technology saw an increase in six-figure salaries of 40 per cent, but that’s because the number of employees earning more than $100,000 went from five to seven.

In 2008, The Sun launched B.C.’s first searchable online database of public-sector salaries.

The database, which includes public servants who earn more than $75,000, has been enormously popular, registering more than 12 million web page views.

The new database includes pay for more than 72,000 public servants working at 110 public-sector agencies including Crown corporations, health authorities, municipalities and universities.

The remuneration information obtained by The Sun includes the total amount paid to each employee, including their base salary but also any overtime, vacation payouts or severance they received.

Depending on the agency, the information in the database covers either the 2012 calendar year or the 2012/13 fiscal year.

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Growth in six-figure salaries slows in B.C.’s public sector

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